Kason, a global manufacturer of screening and processing equipment, has developed the 3D-ReKlaimer, a metal powder recovery system for metal 3D printers that recovers and reconditions used powders to exacting particle sizes.

3D printing with metal is different to 3D printing with polymer filaments in many ways, one of the most significant of which is wastage. While FDM 3D printers only really “waste” material on support structures (and those are actually pretty useful), metal additive manufacturing systems often turn just a fraction of their metal powders into a finished metal part.

This is because the entire print bed needs to be covered in powder before a laser can fuse those powders in the right places.

One way to economize on metal 3D printing powders is to simply fill the build envelope: in this way, more powder is turned into a usable 3D printed part and less is wasted. But another way is to reuse the unprinted powder—a method that is inadvisable without the right processing equipment, but highly beneficial if you have a machine like a metal powder recovery system.

Kason, a manufacturer of industrial screening and processing equipment, has just introduced the 3D-ReKlaimer, a brand-new metal powder recovery system for metal additive manufacturing machines. Kason says the 3D-ReKlaimer can reclaim metal powders used in “all current additive manufacturing technologies” and can be built in custom configurations to suit any 3D printer requirement. The system can even serve multiple 3D printing stations using casters.

The efficiency-boosting 3D-ReKlaimer unit can accept bottles of used powder connected manually, and is also offered with an integral vacuum conveying system that automatically transfers used powders from the 3D printer build chamber into a filter receiver/hopper located above the screening chamber of the 3D-ReKlaimer system. Screened powders can either be stored or fed back into a 3D printer.

The 3D printing metal powder recovery system works using of something called a VIBROSCREEN, a vibratory screener that produces inertial vibrations that cause on-size metal powder particles to pass through small holes in the screen. Oversize particles—those that should not be fed back into a 3D printer—travel across the screen surface into a sealed container.

A Kasonic ultrasonic anti-blinding device, supplied as standard, transmits ultrasonic frequencies to the screen, allowing sifting as fine as 25 µm/500 mesh with no screen blinding, and the closed-loop system can be purged with inert gas to isolate contamination-sensitive powders from ambient air and moisture.